The Great Pretender
by Adrienna
Summary: This can't be him. It can't be Ollie. The broken man in front of her can't be her brother. One-shot, Thea's POV. Rated T. Warnings inside.


**Title: **The Great Pretender**  
Author: **Adrienna**  
Fandom: **Arrow**  
Rating: **T**  
Warnings: **Angst, slightly disturbing images.**  
Summary: **This can't be him. It can't be Ollie. The broken man in front of her can't be her brother. One-shot, Thea's POV. Rated T. Warnings inside.

**A/N: **Would appreciate a beta for this, just to check it over. Most of my stories are written late at night or early in the morning... and this one was not only written early in the morning, but was the result of a bout of boredom. So this is naturally the worst story to ever emerge from my imagination. This was supposed to be one big story, but instead it turned out as four detatched scenarios. Oh well, hope you find some good in this!

**The Great Pretender  
**_Being the short tale of Thea Queen, her brother, butter popcorn, duck feeding and a little acceptance..._

Her eyes burn. They brim with bitter, unshed tears that almost filter past the barrier of her dark, mascara-coated lashes.  
Her nails dig into her palms as she clenches her fists, leaving smooth red crescent moon shapes across her pinkish palms. She realises that this can't be him. It can't be broken man in front of her can't be her brother.  
_Surely not. It must be a trick of the light, or my eyes cruelly deceiving me, _she thinks.  
But it is all undeniably true and very real.  
It's Oliver. Her brother, who has been missing and presumed dead for _five years. _The very Oliver whom she has mourned for.  
And yet he stands before her, wordlessly gazing into her eyes, but with barely suppressed tears of his own.  
Thea feels sick to her stomach. She knows that he is different. She hardly needs to look to recognise that.  
She wonders if it is for the best that he is back, but she is conflicted.  
She has missed Ollie...she thinks of all the times she cried herself to sleep, burying her face in her pillow, and wondering why life had to be so cruel.  
But she knows things will be different, because her brother is different.  
She's not even sure if the old Ollie was a good person, but she knows that she won't trust the new Ollie for one minute until they reconnect.

Thea curls into her brother on the sofa, using the silk throw off an armchair as a blanket. Oliver holds a large glass bowl of popcorn under one arm, his eyes fixed on the television set.  
Thea loves popcorn, salty and buttery, melting in the mouth. But she isn't sure if she is in the mood for popcorn. She's in the mood for talking. She wants to talk to Ollie, to be reassured that there is some trace of the old Oliver, to prove that this new one isn't a clone or an alien.  
"Ollie." She says softly, shifting the bowl of popcorn from his grip.  
"Yes, Speedy?" Oliver gives a roguish grin that relaxes her a little bit. The same smile, and the same appearance. Perhaps he really is her brother, no matter how impossible it seems. After all, his hair is still sandy and scruffy; his eyes still glint under the familiar living room lights. He is tracing lazy patterns down her bare arm with a calloused fingertip.  
She shifts slightly to look up at her brother in the eye.  
"Did you miss me?" She asks quietly. The question has been playing on Thea's mind...she has had trouble deciphering her brother's mixed messages. He seems to want to be separate from her, but he says that he loves her. He ought to want them to be close. She understands sibling love, but she doesn't see much of it in Oliver.  
She sees surprise flicker in her brother's narrowed eyes, and she realises just how childish her question sounded.  
"Of _course _I missed you." Oliver gives her hand a squeeze and smiles at her vibrantly. There is genuineness in his words, and Thea bites down on her lip.  
"Do you love me, Ollie?" Her eyes glisten as they meet his. She knows that this is another childishly simple question with an easy and obvious answer.  
"Thea." Oliver gives the tiniest shake of his head. "I love everyone in my family, and I love all my friends. You fit under both categories."  
"I guess I should consider myself doubly loved." Thea's voice is barely a murmur.  
"Triply." Oliver plants a light kiss on her flushed cheek before standing up, brushing popcorn off his lap, and striding out of the room.  
Thea is left behind, absent-mindedly shoving individual pieces of popcorn into her pretty rosebud mouth, eyes unfocused and her gaze faraway.  
Definitely not her Ollie.  
The tears cascade freely down her cheeks, leaving mascara smudges below her eyes. She isn't even sure why she is crying.  
Perhaps because she recognises that things will never be the same. Flux is not her thing.

A while later she sees the scars that apparently cover twenty percent of her brother's flesh. She is stunned rigid. She doesn't know why Oliver is scarred and dreads the answer. She resists the urge to reach out a finger to trace the line of a wound across his lower abdomen. She is sickened by what she sees, and a bitter taste thickens at the back of her throat.  
_What happened to Ollie? _She wonders. _Why is he scarred so brutally?  
_Thea doesn't understand. Who would hurt her Ollie? Was it a person who inflicted these? Or maybe an animal?  
Oliver's face twists as he spots the look on hers, and he tries to appear calm, but Thea knows that whatever caused these scars must have driven a chisel into Oliver's mind. Being scarred isn't something one forgets.  
Thea swallows back the taste flooding at the back of her mouth and squeezes her eyes shut as tight as they will go, wishing, wishing.  
Wishing that there might be the slightest trace of the Oliver she knows and loves, instead of the scarred, broken, bitter, damaged, hopeless man who is her brother's replacement.

Thea and the new Oliver decide to take a walk. Sunlight filters through the clouds, reflecting in ripples over the pond.  
Thea sits beside her brother on a polished park bench, her light brown hair whipping around her face in the afternoon breeze.  
Oliver has brought along bird feed for the resident ducks.  
Thea's mood is noticeably more cheerful.  
Duck feeding is something they did back before the disappearance of Oliver and her father.  
This means that Oliver has held on to a few things over the years.  
Thea takes a handful of light-coloured grains and sifts them through her hands, watching the ducks snap their beaks to capture the food.  
Oliver feeds the ducks by hand, letting them jab at his palm.  
Thea smiles at this. Ollie had once been scared of ducks, because he had been under the impression they could bite. He hadn't known that ducks don't have teeth.  
Thea feels a sense of hope, watching Oliver attempt to stroke a duck's plumage. Oliver can never be the same to her, but he can still be a good person. And she knows that in time, they will be able to treat each other the same way as before the disappearance. She thinks that they can go out and have fun, and laugh and go out for meals. Thea hopes that she can overlook what she hears at night, because Oliver's sleep is constantly troubled. She hears him each night, screaming, whimpering, and sometimes even crying.  
Thea always tries to forget this, but is brutally reminded each night of her brother's ordeal.  
All she wants to do is be with Oliver, the brother who has returned after five years. She wants them to be a full family again, with her mother and Walter.  
Walter can never be like her real father.  
But Thea is grateful for what is given to her, including her brother.  
She hopes they can reconnect.

**A/N**: This is what happens when I am bored. Oh well, reviews would be lovely. Flames are not welcome at all. Kindly forgive any spelling mistakes. I would like a **beta **if anyone has the time.  
It's short and unsequenced, but I hope you somewhat enjoyed it.


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